508 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the 25th, 26th and 27th; much colder from the west and north, lasting 

 up to the 30th and 31st. 



These predictions can hardly be said to be less absurd or to possess 

 more value than those given in Dr. Moore's almanac for the month of 

 January one hundred and ten years before. This statement is made 

 without regard as to whether or not any of the storms passing across 

 the United States during January, 1904, happened to agree in time in 

 some part of the country with the storm periods mentioned in the 

 ' Word and Works ' forecast. During any month of January, from 

 five to ten storm areas of from two to four or five days' duration pass 

 across or over some part of the United States, and it would be strange 

 indeed if some of these storms somewhere did not agree with the ' long- 

 range ' forecast periods. 



Professor C. M. Woodward, of Washington University, St. Louis, 

 Mo., has given a clear and most excellent review of the so-called 

 planetary influence theory, in an article published in Ware's Valley 

 Monthly, December, 1875. The article is entitled ' An Examination 

 of Mr. Tice's Theory of the Planetary Equinoxes,' and was published 

 very soon after the appearance of that wonder book, Tice's ' Elements 

 of Meteorology.' Professor Woodward practically concluded that Mr. 

 Tice ' built a house of straw upon the sand, and his theories fell under 

 the first blow.' As Mr. Tice's disciples are still with us working upon 

 the credulity of the people, and as Professor Woodward's article is 

 probably not now generally available,* I will attempt briefly an explana- 

 tion of this fantastic theory, drawing freely upon the work and words 

 of Professor Woodward. 



For the past seventy-five years or more the scientific world has been 

 busy observing, collecting and tabulating all sorts of natural phenomena 

 — astronomical, physical and meteorological — in the attempt to discover 

 cycles, or regular recurring periods. Thus it was found that the sun 

 spots show a period of 11.11 years between two successive times of 

 maximum frequency; also that this period holds good for extra mag- 

 netic disturbances of storms. Further, that the times of maximum and 

 minimum sun spot frequency fairly agrees with the times of maximum 

 and minimum magnetic disturbance, and also that the years in which 

 the sun spots were the most frequent, and the earth most electrically 

 excited, were years as well in which hurricanes were the most terrible 

 and most numerous in the East and West Indies. These striking coin- 

 cidences set men to thinking, and the scientists — and some, unfor- 

 tunately, not so scientific — to hunting for a possible cause. 



* Since writing this article, Professor Woodward's paper in full has been 

 published in Bulletin No. 35, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Weather Bureau, 

 entitled ' Long-Range Weather Forecasts,' by E. B. Garriott, professor of 

 meteorology. A copy of this bulletin can be obtained by addressing, Chief, 

 U. S. Weather Bureau, Washington, D. C.— F. J. W. 



